8/27/2010 @ 5:48PM5,754 views

The Inside Scoop on Paul Allen's Big Patent Lawsuit

Here is a quick analysis of today’s Paul Allen patent lawsuit from a court-certified commentator in the case.

This is yet another example of the cynical use of the American legal system to extort money out of successful companies — in the name of protecting innovation and innovators. Shame on Paul Allen for being part of it.

The expert? Me. I am court-certified in that that my name is certified to be on a number of the court papers filed in connection in the lawsuit. This as author of numerous press accounts over the years about many of the technologies and companies mentioned in the litigation. (To be perfectly honest, lots of other journalists are also cited, but I don’t presume to speak for them.)

This patent troll shakedown racket has gotten a lot of press attention over the years; here is a piece I did a few months ago. Unfortunately, there is no end is in sight. Some had hoped that the Supreme Court would find a way to curb the matter in the recent Bilski case. The decision, though, ended up doing no such thing.

Patent lawsuits are the logical offspring of the shareholder lawsuits that were filed routinely by lawyers such as William Lerach during the 1990s, seemingly whenever a stock dropped in price, and for nearly any reason. Lerach, though, was always a pariah in Silicon Valley, and he was at least honest about wanting to be rich more than he wanted to be loved.

But this new breed of litigants — not just Allen, but also fellow Microsoft alumnus Nathan Mhyrvold — seem to want to have it all; hundreds of millions of dollars from specious legal victories, as well as continued membership in good standing in the pantheon of venerated tech innovators and entrepreneurs. And they seem to be getting away with it.

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